Displaying location-based images that match the weather conditions

ABSTRACT

An image associated with a location and depicting the current weather conditions at the location is served to the user along with the current weather data of the location. If an image for the location that aptly depicts the weather conditions as indicated by the weather data cannot be identified, the geographical area associated with the location is expanded to search for appropriate images from an expanded image pool. The expansion can continue in one or more steps until a threshold is reached beyond which the geographical area my no longer be expanded. If no images are retrieved upon reaching the threshold, an image reflecting the weather condition is selected from a fallback image set for presentation with the weather data.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority fromco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/964,499, filed on Aug.12, 2013, entitled “Displaying Location-Based Images That Match TheWeather Conditions,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Computing devices are commonly employed by users to execute varioustasks via the communication networks such as exchange of email,transmission of audio/image/video data, or to search for information.The emergence of mobile networks with capacities to transport differenttypes of data in addition to voice data has led to the proliferation ofmobile devices such as smartphones and tablet devices. Such mobiledevices are not only used for voice communication but are alsoextensively employed by users for accessing a variety of data includingimage, audio and video data. Weather data, such as, current weatherconditions or predicted weather conditions is one type of informationthat is routinely accessed users via the computing devices for planningtrips, meetings or other outdoor activities.

SUMMARY

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for serving weather datawith images depicting the weather conditions at users' locations. Amethod for serving weather data with appropriate images is disclosed inan embodiment. The method steps are executed by a processor via logicstored in a non-transitory processor readable storage medium. The methodcomprises, receiving, by a processor, a request for weather informationfrom a user device, the request is associated with location information.In an embodiment, the location information can comprise GPS (GlobalPositioning System) data associated with a user device. In anembodiment, the location information can comprise unique ids associatedwith each of the user selected locations. Upon receiving the request,the processor retrieves weather data indicative of current weatherconditions at at least one locale identified by the locationinformation. The processor also identifies an image associated with thelocale from an image collection wherein, the image depicting the weatherconditions that match the retrieved weather data. The metadata of theidentified image is received, combined with the weather data andtransmitted for presentation to a user. In an embodiment, the userdevice can retrieve the identified image from the metadata, combine theimage with the weather data for display to the user.

In one embodiment, if no images associated with the locale that depictweather conditions matching the retrieved weather data are identified,the processor expands a geographical area associated with the locale toinclude additional area surrounding the locale thereby accessing anexpanded image collection depicting various weather conditionscorresponding to the expanded area in order to select an appropriateimage for presentation with the weather data. The expanding andaccessing steps are repeated until at least one image from the expandedimage collection depicting weather conditions that match the retrievedweather data is selected/identified or a threshold condition is met. Inone embodiment, the threshold condition comprises a predetermined limitbeyond which the geographical area associated with the locale cannot befurther expanded. In an embodiment, the image for combining with theweather data is identified from a default image collection when thethreshold condition is met wherein the default image collectioncomprises images depicting generic themes such that the exact locationswhere the images were taken cannot be identified from the images.

In an embodiment, images submitted by users for including in the imagecollection are received by the processor which determines if each of theuser-submitted images satisfies a policy. Based on the determination,the user-submitted images that satisfy the policy are added to the imagecollection.

In an embodiment, a plurality of images associated with the locale anddepicting weather conditions that match the retrieved weather data areretrieved by the processor from the image collection. The retrievedimages are ranked by the processor, in a descending order such that afirst ranked image best depicts the weather conditions and the firstranked image is selected for combining with the weather data. In anembodiment the best image for combining with the weather data isreceived via a user input.

A computing device comprising a processor and a storage medium fortangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor isdisclosed in an embodiment. The programming logic comprises requestreceiving logic for receiving a request for weather information from auser device, wherein the request associated with location information,weather data retrieving logic, for retrieving weather data indicative ofcurrent weather conditions at a locale identified by the locationinformation and image identifying logic for identifying an imageassociated with the locale from an image collection, wherein the imagedepicts weather conditions that match the retrieved weather data. Theprocessor further executes image metadata receiving logic, for receivingmetadata of the identified image to be combined with the weather datafor presentation to a user and transmitting logic for transmitting theimage metadata combined with the weather data for presentation to theuser device.

In an embodiment, if no images associated with the locale that depictweather conditions matching the retrieved weather data are identified,the processor executes expanding logic, for expanding a geographicalarea associated with the locale and accessing logic for accessing anexpanded image collection depicting various weather conditionscorresponding to the expanded area associated with the locale. In anembodiment, the processor also executes repeating logic, for repeatingexecution of the expanding logic and the accessing logic until at leastone image from the expanded image collection depicting weatherconditions that match the retrieved weather data is selected or athreshold condition is met. In an embodiment, the threshold conditioncomprises a predetermined limit beyond which the geographical areaassociated with the locale cannot be further expanded. In an embodiment,the processor executes default image selecting logic for selecting theimage for combining with the weather data from a default imagecollection when the threshold condition is met. The default imagecollection comprises images depicting generic themes such that locationswhere images of the default collection were taken cannot be identified.

A computer readable storage medium comprising processor-executableinstructions is disclosed in an embodiment. The instructions cause theprocessor to receive a request for weather information from a userdevice, the request associated with location information, retrieveweather data indicative of current weather conditions for at least onelocale identified by the location information, and identify an imageassociated with the locale from an image collection, the image depictingweather conditions that match the retrieved weather data. Theinstructions also cause the processor to transmit the received metadatawith the weather data to the user device. In an embodiment, the userdevice can retrieve the identified image from the metadata, combined theimage with the weather data for display to the user.

In an embodiment, if no images associated with the locale that depictweather conditions matching the retrieved weather data are received, theinstructions cause the processor to expand a geographical areaassociated with the locale, access an expanded image collectiondepicting various weather conditions corresponding to the expanded areaassociated with the locale and repeat execution of the expansion and theaccessing steps until at least one image from the expanded imagecollection depicting weather conditions that match the retrieved weatherdata is selected or a threshold condition is met wherein the thresholdcondition comprises a predetermined limit beyond which the geographicalarea associated with the locale cannot be further expanded. In oneembodiment the computer readable medium further comprises instructionsthat cause the processor to select the image for combining with theweather data from a default image collection when the thresholdcondition is met. In an embodiment the instructions also cause theprocessor to determine if each of the user-submitted images satisfies apolicy and add user-submitted images that satisfy the policy to theimage collection.

These and other embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art with reference to the following detailed description and theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawing figures, which are not to scale, and where like referencenumerals indicate like elements throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a weather imaging module thatprovides weather information in accordance with embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the details of the weather imagingmodule in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing details of the image retrievalmodule in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing details of the image collectingmodule in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart detailing a method of providing weatherinformation in accordance with embodiments described herein;

FIG. 6a is a flowchart that details the method of selecting an imageassociated with a locale which accurately depicts the weather conditionsfor presentation to the user with the weather data in accordance withone embodiment;

FIG. 6b illustrates a schematic diagram of a geo-hierarchy in accordancewith one embodiment;

FIG. 6c is a flow chart that details a method for expanding a locale inaccordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 7a is a schematic diagram of a user interface showing weather datawith a user submitted image in accordance with embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 7b is a schematic diagram of another user interface shown when thedisplay was refreshed a few minutes after the user interface wasretrieved in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a user interface that is shown when one ofthe widget is selected in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates internal architecture of a computing device inaccordance with embodiments described herein; and

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a client deviceimplementation of a computing device in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Subject matter will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, andwhich show, by way of illustration, specific example embodiments.Subject matter may, however, be embodied in a variety of different formsand, therefore, covered or claimed subject matter is intended to beconstrued as not being limited to any example embodiments set forthherein; example embodiments are provided merely to be illustrative.Likewise, a reasonably broad scope for claimed or covered subject matteris intended. Among other things, for example, subject matter may beembodied as methods, devices, components, or systems. Accordingly,embodiments may, for example, take the form of hardware, software,firmware or any combination thereof (other than software per se). Thefollowing detailed description is, therefore, not intended to be takenin a limiting sense.

In the accompanying drawings, some features may be exaggerated to showdetails of particular components (and any size, material and similardetails shown in the figures are intended to be illustrative and notrestrictive). Therefore, specific structural and functional detailsdisclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as arepresentative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variouslyemploy the disclosed embodiments.

The present invention is described below with reference to blockdiagrams and operational illustrations of methods and devices to selectand present media related to a specific topic. It is understood thateach block of the block diagrams or operational illustrations, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams or operationalillustrations, can be implemented by means of analog or digital hardwareand computer program instructions. These computer program instructionsor logic can be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer,special purpose computer, ASIC, or other programmable data processingapparatus, such that the instructions, which execute via the processorof the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus,implements the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams oroperational block or blocks.

In some alternate implementations, the functions/acts noted in theblocks can occur out of the order noted in the operationalillustrations. For example, two blocks shown in succession can in factbe executed substantially concurrently or the blocks can sometimes beexecuted in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/actsinvolved. Furthermore, the embodiments of methods presented anddescribed as flowcharts in this disclosure are provided by way ofexample in order to provide a more complete understanding of thetechnology. The disclosed methods are not limited to the operations andlogical flow presented herein. Alternative embodiments are contemplatedin which the order of the various operations is altered and in whichsub-operations described as being part of a larger operation areperformed independently.

For the purposes of this disclosure the term “server” should beunderstood to refer to a service point which provides processing,database, and communication facilities. By way of example, and notlimitation, the term “server” can refer to a single, physical processorwith associated communications and data storage and database facilities,or it can refer to a networked or clustered complex of processors andassociated network and storage devices, as well as operating softwareand one or more database systems and applications software which supportthe services provided by the server.

For the purposes of this disclosure a “network” should be understood torefer to a network that may couple devices so that communications may beexchanged, such as between a server and a client device or other typesof devices, including between wireless devices coupled via a wirelessnetwork, for example. A network may also include mass storage, such asnetwork attached storage (NAS), a storage area network (SAN), or otherforms of computer or machine readable media, for example. A network mayinclude the Internet, one or more local area networks (LANs), one ormore wide area networks (WANs), wire-line type connections, wirelesstype connections, cellular or any combination thereof. Likewise,sub-networks, which may employ differing architectures or may becompliant or compatible with differing protocols, may interoperatewithin a larger network. Various types of devices may, for example, bemade available to provide an interoperable capability for differingarchitectures or protocols. As one illustrative example, a router mayprovide a link between otherwise separate and independent LANs.

A communication link or channel may include, for example, analogtelephone lines, such as a twisted wire pair, a coaxial cable, full orfractional digital lines including T1, T2, T3, or T4 type lines,Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDNs), Digital Subscriber Lines(DSLs), wireless links including satellite links, or other communicationlinks or channels, such as may be known to those skilled in the art.Furthermore, a computing device or other related electronic devices maybe remotely coupled to a network, such as via a telephone line or link,for example.

A computing device may be capable of sending or receiving signals, suchas via a wired or wireless network, or may be capable of processing orstoring signals, such as in memory as physical memory states, and may,therefore, operate as a server. Thus, devices capable of operating as aserver may include, as examples, dedicated rack-mounted servers, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, set top boxes, integrated devices combiningvarious features, such as two or more features of the foregoing devices,or the like. Servers may vary widely in configuration or capabilities,but generally a server may include one or more central processing unitsand memory. A server may also include one or more mass storage devices,one or more power supplies, one or more wired or wireless networkinterfaces, one or more input/output interfaces, or one or moreoperating systems, such as Windows Server, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux,FreeBSD, or the like.

Throughout the specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meaningssuggested or implied in context beyond an explicitly stated meaning.Likewise, the phrase “in one embodiment” as used herein does notnecessarily refer to the same embodiment and the phrase “in anotherembodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a differentembodiment. It is intended, for example, that claimed subject matterinclude combinations of example embodiments in whole or in part. Ingeneral, terminology may be understood at least in part from usage incontext. For example, terms, such as “and”, “or”, or “and/or,” as usedherein may include a variety of meanings that may depend at least inpart upon the context in which such terms are used. Typically, “or” ifused to associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B,and C, here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here usedin the exclusive sense. In addition, the term “one or more” as usedherein, depending at least in part upon context, may be used to describeany feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular sense or may beused to describe combinations of features, structures or characteristicsin a plural sense. Similarly, terms, such as “a,” “an,” or “the,” again,may be understood to convey a singular usage or to convey a pluralusage, depending at least in part upon context. In addition, the term“based on” may be understood as not necessarily intended to convey anexclusive set of factors and may, instead, allow for existence ofadditional factors not necessarily expressly described, again, dependingat least in part on context.

Checking the weather is a part of the daily routine for many people. Theavailability of the Internet and data-enabled computing/mobile devicesfacilitate users to look up the weather data as often as they desire andthereby receive real-time weather updates not only for their locationsbut also for far flung regions of the globe. The real-time updates allowa user to better plan his/her day by scheduling outdoors activities attimes when the weather is conducive. For many people the weather is alsoa topic of conversation with friends, family or even strangers. Weatherdata on computing devices is generally presented as static text data,charts or it may be combined with animated images that fail toillustrate the beauty of nature under the various weather conditions.

Systems and methods described herein facilitate serving users with notonly the weather data of their locations of interest but displaying theweather data in combination with appropriate images. In an embodiment,the weather data of a location is displayed with images associated withthat location and depicting the weather conditions as indicated by theweather data. By the way of illustration and not limitation, if theweather data of San Francisco indicates a sunny, pleasant day, such datacan be shown as an overlay on a photographic image of the Golden GateBridge which was captured on a sunny day as indicated by the weatherdata. Similarly, if the weather data of New York City indicates rainyconditions, such data can be displayed as an overlay on a photographicimage of the Empire State Building or other location associated with NewYork City taken during cloudy/stormy weather conditions as indicated bythe weather data. In an embodiment, the images can also match the timeof the day associated with the weather data. A display of the weatherdata in accordance with embodiments described herein therefore providesa user with a window to his/her places of interest. User interactionwith various elements of the weather data can lead to presentation offurther details as will be described further infra.

Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of aweather imaging module 100 that provides weather information inaccordance with embodiments described herein. A client device 110 isemployed by a user to request weather information regarding one or morelocations of interest. The user's request 102 is transmitted from theclient device 110 via a communication network such as the Internet orcellular network 180 to a server 130 executing the weather imagingmodule 100. The weather imaging module 100 receives the user request 102and identifies one or more locations of interest to the user submittingthe request 102. In an embodiment, the locations of interest can includeas a default value, the user's current location, identified for example,via GPS (Global Positioning System) or IP (Internet Protocol) addressdata associated with the user request 102. In an embodiment, thelocations of interest can additionally include other locations that theuser explicitly selects to receive weather data from a list of locationspresented by the weather imaging module 100.

The weather imaging module 100 additionally retrieves weather data 104for each of the locations of interest. In an embodiment, the weatherdata can be obtained from a weather data module 140 comprised on theserver 130 that also executes the weather imaging module 100. In anembodiment, the weather data module 140 can be administered by a thirdparty source on a server 142 that is remote to the server 130 and iscommunicatively coupled to the server 130 via the network 120. Variousparameters, such as but not limited to, temperature, pressure, humidity,rainfall/snow data, pollen count, flooding, extreme weather warning andother factors indicative of the outdoor conditions at a location can beprovided as weather data 104 of the location. The weather data 104 canalso include predictions for the weather conditions over certainpredetermine time periods, such as, for the next twenty four hours fromthe time of receipt of the request 102 for the weather information. Inan embodiment, the weather imaging module 100 transmits the locations ofinterest to the weather data module 140 to retrieve the weather data104. In an embodiment, the weather data 104 can be provided to theweather imaging module 100 in a predetermined format that can includetext, numbers, alphanumeric characters or combinations thereof.

Upon receiving the weather data 104, the weather imaging module 100identifies weather conditions of each of the locations of interestdescribed by the retrieved weather data 104. In an embodiment, theweather data 104 can include current weather conditions and weatherpredictions for a predetermined time period for the locations ofinterest. The weather imaging module 100 is additionally configured toselect images 106 of each of the locations of interest depicting theirrespective current weather conditions as indicated by the weather data104. The images are selected from a collection of images 120 saved to aprocessor-readable non-transitory storage medium. In an embodiment, theimages can comprise illustrations such as photographs, paintings orother static/animated depictions of various locales during differentweather conditions.

In one embodiment, the image collection 120 comprises digital imagessuch as photographs submitted by the users either to the weather imagingmodule 100 or a third party source administering the image collection120. For example, the image collection 120 can be associated with aphoto sharing website such as FLICKR. The weather imaging module 100 cansolicit users to submit images of locations around the globe depicting avariety of weather conditions that are experienced at different places.In an embodiment, the weather imaging module 100 can establishsubmission criteria for the user-generated images in order to beconsidered for induction into the image collection 120. The criteria maycomprise but are not limited to specifications regarding quality andsubject of the images, image orientation, image size and resolution. Inan embodiment, the users can also be required to supply tagginginformation such as a weather condition depicted in the photograph andgeotag their digital images to specify the locations, for example, thecity where the image was taken. This facilitates the weather imagingmodule 100 to identify the various images associated with each of thelocations of interest and filter them to select those images thataccurately depict the weather conditions as indicated in the weatherdata 104. It may be appreciated that the image collection 120 is shownas part of the server 130 only by the way of illustration and that theimage collection 120 can be stored on a separate third-party servercoupled communicatively to the server 130 via the network 120 inaccordance with one embodiment.

The weather data 104 is combined with the selected images 106 andconfigured as a weather information display 108 for presentation to theuser on the user device 110. In an embodiment, the combining of theimage with the weather data can occur at the weather module 100 and acomplete display can be transmitted to the user device 110. In anembodiment, the image collection 120 can be hosted by a third partyimage server (not shown) and the weather module 100 can provide the userdevice 110 with metadata to the best available copies of the selectedimages 106 so that the user device 110 is enabled to request the imagesdirectly from the third party server and configure the weather displayin accordance with embodiments described herein. For example, the bestavailable copy can be a copy of an image with the highest resolution.The user device 110 can asynchronously download the images from thethird party website. In an embodiment, the user device 110 can cache areceived image and if the same metadata is received from the weathermodule 100 in a subsequent connection, the image can be loaded from thelocal cache instead of connecting to the third party server.

Various formats can be employed for configuring the display of theweather data 104 with the selected images 106. In one embodiment, thedisplay of the weather data 104 of one of the locations is configured asa transparent overlay on a selected image for the location. A pluralityof such screens can be configured such that each screen corresponds toone of the user's selected locations of interest. The screens can bepresented to the user as a slide show that transitions from one screento another either automatically or in response to a user action receivedvia a click of a mouse, a tap, a tilt or other modality. The userinterface screens can also be configured to be interactive such that avariety of user actions result in retrieval of different information. Bythe way of illustration and not limitation, selecting a temperatureparameter from the weather data 104 can present further details such asmaximum, minimum temperatures for a given time period or selecting oneof the images 106 can give options to the users to share or save theselected image or selecting a link on the weather data can providedetailed predictions for a predetermined time period.

In an embodiment, the weather imaging module 100 is further configuredto expand the search of images associated with the locations of interestif an image that matches the current weather conditions is not found inthe image collection 120 for one of the locations. For example, if animage that accurately illustrates the weather conditions at a cityincluded in the locations of interest cannot be identified in the imagecollection 120, the weather imaging module 100 can modify the definitionof the city to cover the county in which the city is located. Thisfacilitates searching over a larger image pool in order to identify amatching image. The search can be gradually expanded to include largerareas so that more images are available for selection. However, it canbe appreciated that the search can be expanded only until a certainthreshold area for maintaining accuracy of the locations/landmarkspictured in the images. In an embodiment, the image collection 120 canhave a generic subset of images 122 that show weather conditions indifferent places without any location-specific landmarks. By the way ofillustration and not limitation, images in the default image collection122 depicting generic themes can include images of clouds in the sky, aclose up image of flowers with dew or an image of an ocean/beach, a fullmoon or other images which can be found at many geographic locationsaround the globe. Alternately, the default image collection 122comprises images such that the location at which they were taken cannotbe identified from the image. If no images can be found to accuratelydepict the weather conditions of a given location even upon expansion,one of the subset of default/generic images 122 that aptly depicts theweather conditions for one of the locations of interest can be combinedwith the respective weather data 104 for generation of the weatherinformation display 108.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the details of the weather imagingmodule 100 in accordance with one embodiment. The weather imaging module100 comprises an input module 202 configured to receive user request 102and transmit it to the image retrieval module 204. The image retrievalmodule 204 is configured to identify the locations associated with theuser request 102 and retrieve the weather data 104 of the identifiedlocations. The retrieved weather data 104 is analyzed to determine theweather conditions of the identified locations and the images of thelocations that depict the weather conditions are selected or identifiedby the image retrieval module 204. The selected images 106 or metadataof the selected images is transmitted to the output module 206 fortransmission to user devices in accordance with various formats asdetailed herein. The weather imaging module 202 also comprises the imagecollecting module 208 which is configured to receive user images, verifyif the images are in accordance with a predetermined policy establishedby an entity administering the weather imaging module 100 and savecompliant images to the image collection 120. In an embodiment, theimage collecting module 208 can be configured to automatically discardor delete images that are not in compliance with the established policy.The image collecting module 208 can be further configured to send viathe output module 206, a message regarding the image deletion and areason for the non-compliance to the users submitting the non-compliantimages in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing details of the image retrievalmodule 204 in accordance with one embodiment. The image retrieval module204 comprises a location identifier module 302 to analyze the userrequest 102 and identify locations of interest associated with the userrequest 102. In an embodiment, the locations of interest can include theuser's current location as a default value. Based at least on the typeof user device 110 employed to make the request 102, a user's currentlocation can be derived by the location identification module 302 fromthe GPS data or IP address data associated with the user request 102. Inan embodiment, the location identification module 302 can additionallyretrieve locations of interest that were explicitly selected by the userand stored in a processor-executable medium associated with the server130.

The information regarding the identified locations of interest iscommunicated to the weather information retrieval module 304 that isconfigured to communicate with the weather data module 140 to receivethe weather data 104. In an embodiment, the weather informationretrieval module 304 can be configured to communicate the informationregarding the locations of interest in a predefined format for retrievalof the weather data 104. In an embodiment, the weather data 104 cancomprise various parameters describing the physical conditions at thegeographical locations specified by the locations of interest.

The weather data 104 retrieved from the weather module 140 is conveyedto the image matching module 306 which is configured to select images ofeach of the locations of interest as detailed in accordance with variousembodiments. The image matching module 306 is configured to match thereceived weather data 104 with the tag information of the various imagesassociated with each of the locations of interest. In an embodiment, theweather data 104 can be received in a predetermined format which caninclude specific predetermined terms to describe various weatherconditions. By the way of illustration and not limitation, the receivedweather data 104 can comprise text input describing the weatherconditions as, “sunny”, “cloudy”, “rainy”, “windy”, “hot”, “humid”,“cold” or other adjectives. Similar adjectives can be suggested as tagsto the users submitting their images to the image collection 120. Theimage matching module 306 can be configured to match the text input fromthe weather data 104 with the tags for images associated with each ofthe locations of interest and select an image having tagging informationthat match the weather data 104 for each of the locations.

In an embodiment, each of the locations of interest can be initiallydefined to cover a certain geographical region which can include by theway of illustration, a village, a city or other unit of geographicalregion. The images submitted to the image collection 120 can becategorized into various buckets associated with the units ofgeographical regions based on their geotags. In an embodiment, if noimages matching a weather condition can be retrieved for a particularone of the locations of interest, the image matching module 306 can beconfigured to transmit the information regarding such a location to thelocation expansion module 308. The location expansion module 308 can beconfigured to expand the area associated with the location to cover alarger surrounding geographical region. The location expansion module308 is configured to change or upgrade the unit of geographic regionassociated with the location to a next unit of the geographical regionin a geo-hierarchy. For example, a geographic region can be partitionedinto sub-divisions in a hierarchical manner such as a city, a county anda state based on natural, political or administrative boundaries.Therefore, if a search of images associated with a location defined as acity fails to retrieve any matches, the unit associated with thelocation can be upgraded to a next unit, such as a district or county inwhich the city may be located. The information regarding the expandedgeographical region can be transmitted from the location expansionmodule 308 to the image retrieval module 306. In an embodiment, theinformation regarding the expanded geographical region can comprise oneor more geotag data or a unique id defined within a geo-hierarchy thatthe image retrieval module 306 can employ for identifying matchingimages. Thus, the image retrieval module 306 can be configured to locateimages having geotags associated with the different cities in thedistrict or county specified by the geotag data from the locationexpansion module 308 thereby expanding the subset of images from theimage collection 120 that are available to match with the weather data104 for the location. It may be appreciated that different countriesaround the globe can have their areas divided into different units andthe location expansion module 308 can be configured to identify theunits of geographic regions based on such regional variations.

When the image retrieval module 306 fails to retrieve images for theexpanded geographical region, the information regarding the failure iscommunicated to the location expansion module 308 in accordance with oneembodiment. The location expansion module 308 can be configured todetermine if an expansion threshold is reached or if the unit ofgeographical region can be further expanded. A predetermined expansionthreshold is set for the locations associated with the pictures in theimage collection 120 in order to maintain accuracy of the location-basedimage retrieval and to mitigate association of images of places furtheraway with the weather data of the given location. Based on thedetermination, the location expansion module 308 can either transmitadditional information for the identification of images or the locationexpansion module 308 can signal the image retrieval module 306 that noadditional information can be retrieved. The image retrieval module 306can select images from the default image collection 122 when thegeographical region may no longer be expanded.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing details of the image collectingmodule 208 in accordance with one embodiment. The images submitted bythe users to the weather imaging module 100 are transmitted by the inputmodule 202 to the verification module 402. The verification module 402checks if each of the user submitted images comply with the policies 420established for the weather imaging module 100 in accordance with oneembodiment. In an embodiment, the verification module 402 can beconfigured to automatically determine the policy compliance of theuser-submitted images 410. In an embodiment, the verification module 402can be configured to receive additional user input and policy complianceof the user-submitted images can be determined based on a combination ofautomatic determinations and the user input. By the way of illustrationand not limitation, aspects such as association of recommended tag datawith the images, image quality, presence of watermarks etc. can beautomatically determined whereas confirmations regarding the weatherconditions or landmarks are accurately tagged by the users can beobtained via the user input. The images 410 that do not comply with theestablished policy 420 are identified and the notification module 406can configure and send appropriate messages or notifications 430 to theusers who submitted the non-compliant images. For example, for anymissing tag information or images with copyrights the notificationmodule 406 can send messages to the users regarding the reasons forrejection of their images. Those images received from the users that arefully compliant with the established policy 420 are saved by the storingmodule 404 to the image collection 120 and/or the default collection122. In an embodiment, the determination on whether an image can beincluded in the default collection 122 can be made manually by a usersuch as an administrator or an editor associated with the weatherimaging module 100. In an embodiment, the determination to include animage in the default collection 122 can be made by a processorassociated with the weather imaging module 100 by via various imageanalysis algorithms that are currently known or yet to be invented.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart 500 detailing a method of providing weatherinformation in accordance with embodiments described herein. The methodbegins with the weather imaging module 100 receiving a request forweather data 502. The locales associated with the request are identified504 in order to retrieve the appropriate weather information. In anembodiment, more than one locale can be associated with the userrequest. For example, the user can have a profile stored in aprocessor-readable storage medium and a plurality of locales can beselected by the user to monitor the weather conditions. Accordingly, theplurality of locales are identified at 504 for retrieval of weatherdata. In an embodiment, a locale can be identified based on the locationinformation transmitted with the request 102. For example, the request102 can be transmitted by a user device 110 such as a smartphone that iscapable of signaling location information such as GPS data or thelocation information can be retrieved via an IP address employed by theuser device 110. Based on the location information associated with therequest 102 a locale for retrieval of weather data is to be retrievedcan be identified at 504. The weather data 104 indicative of currentweather conditions at the identified locales is retrieved at 506 fromthe weather data module 140. In an embodiment, the retrieved weatherdata 104 can be communicated in a predetermined format by the weatherdata module 140 to the weather imaging module 100 in order to enable theweather imaging module 100 to retrieve appropriate images that reflectthe weather conditions as indicated in the transmitted weather data 104.At 508 the images associated with each of the identified locales thatpicture the weather conditions as indicated by the weather data 104 areselected in accordance with embodiments detailed further herein. Themetadata of the selected images 106 for each locale is combined with theweather data 104 for the locales at 510 for generating the weatherinformation display 108 and transmitted to the user at 512. The userdevice 110 can retrieve the selected image using the metadata, configurea display 108 of the selected image with the weather data 104 andprovide it to the user. In an embodiment, the selected images 106 can becombined with the weather data 104 at the weather imaging module 100 andthe complete display 108 can be transmitted to the user device 110. Theweather imaging module 100 therefore serves as a window to thelocation(s) of interest to the user.

FIG. 6a illustrates a flowchart 600 that details the method of selectingan image associated with a locale which accurately depicts the weatherconditions for presentation to the user along with the weather data inaccordance with one embodiment. The method of retrieving or selectingappropriate images begins with the weather imaging module 100 accessingthe image collection 120 at 602 in order to select images associatedwith a locale. In an embodiment, the locale can be identified via thelocation information transmitted with the user request 102 for weatherdata or it can be selected by the user from a list of locationspresented by the weather imaging module 100. In one embodiment, theimage collection 120 stores images submitted by the users and associatedwith geographical identification metadata such as but not limited to,geotags in addition to being tagged with metadata descriptive of theweather conditions depicted in the images. In an embodiment, the imagescan be stored in a sorted order based on their geographicalidentification metadata and the weather metadata to facilitateretrieval. At 604, the images associated with the locale that aptlydepict the current weather conditions at the locale as indicated in theweather data 104 are retrieved. In an embodiment, the images can includea landmark associated with the locale. In an embodiment, the images maynot include a locale-specific landmark but may depict a weathercondition at a locale and can be included in the default imagecollection 122 so that they may be used to depict a weather conditionfor another locale when the appropriate images cannot be retrieved forthe other locale as will be described further infra. It is determined at606 if more than one location-specific image that aptly depicts theweather data 104 is retrieved. If yes, the images can be rankedautomatically by a processor at 608 for example, in a descending orderbased on various criteria such as but not limited to image quality,association with the locale and depiction of weather condition so thatthe top ranked image is most closely related to the locale and mostaptly depicts the weather conditions. Accordingly, the top ranked imageis selected at 610 for presentation to the user with the weather data104. In an embodiment, the final image for presentation to the user canbe selected at 610 by a human editor from the pool of ranked imagesobtained at 608. In an embodiment, the top ranked image can beassociated with a third party image provider and the weather module 100can provide the user device with a metadata to the best available copyof the top ranked image. For example, the best available copy can be acopy of the image with the highest resolution. The user device 110 canasynchronously download the top ranked image from the third partywebsite. In an embodiment, the user device 110 can cache the image andif the same metadata is received from the weather module 100 in asubsequent connection, the image can be loaded from the cache instead ofconnecting to the third party website.

If it is determined at 606 that more than one image is not retrieved, itis determined at 612 if exactly one image was retrieved. If yes, thesingle retrieved image is selected at 614 for presentation to the userwith the weather data 104 for the locale and the process terminates onthe end block. If it is determined at 612 that even one image was notretrieved for the locale, the locale definition is expanded to covermore geographical area at 616. In one embodiment, each location aroundthe globe is associated with a particular level of geo-hierarchy withinthe weather imaging module 100 based on natural, political oradministrative boundaries. For example, a town or a village can be atthe bottom level of the geo-hierarchy whereas a county/districtcomprising the town can be at a higher level of the geo-hierarchy. Astate in which the city is located is at a higher level in thegeo-hierarchy while the country including the city will be at aprogressively higher level of the geo-hierarchy. Thus, if the localeinitially identified with the request 102 is a town, it may be expandedat 616 to cover a county or a district (a next level in thegeo-hierarchy) including the town thereby expanding the image poolavailable for selection. In an embodiment, each of the plurality oflocations corresponding to different levels of geo-hierarchy isidentified within the weather imaging module 100 via a unique id. Forexample, a small town can have a first unique id, a county comprisingthe town may have a second unique id and a state including the countycan have yet another third unique id. Thus, the geographic areaassociated with the locale can be expanded at 616 by replacing theunique id of a geographic entity currently associated with the localewith the unique id of another geographic entity that is higher up in thegeo-hierarchy.

It may be appreciated that the locale definition cannot be expandedindefinitely in the interests of maintaining accuracy of the imagesretrieved for a given locale. For example, the geographical area for agiven locale may not be expanded beyond the state associated with thegeo-hierarchy of the locale. In an embodiment, standard thresholds canbe established for the locales within the weather imaging module 100,for example in terms of geographical area or political subdivisions suchas district/county/town/state defined for the locale. Accordingly, at618, it is determined if the expansion threshold is reached.Alternately, it is determined if the area associated with the locale hasexpanded beyond the threshold set for the locale. If it is determined at618 that the threshold has not been reached, the method loops back to604 for retrieving images associated with the expanded locale andproceeds with the execution of the other steps as detailed supra. If itis determined at 618 that the threshold is reached upon expansion at616, it is determined that no location-specific images that depict thecurrent weather conditions exist in the image collection 120 andtherefore, images that describe the current weather conditions areselected at 620 from the default collection 122 for presentation to theuser.

FIG. 6b illustrates a schematic diagram of a geo-hierarchy 650implemented by the weather imaging module 100 within the image set 120in accordance with one embodiment. Each level of the geo hierarchy 650is associated with an image pool/set available to the weather imagingmodule 100 for image retrieval. The images in the image collection 120are classified based on their association with the geographicalentities/levels such as but not limited to town level image set 652,county level image set 654, state level image set 656 or thefallback/default level 658 in the geo-hierarchy 650. In an embodiment,an image can belong to more than one level and is tagged with a uniqueid indicative of the different levels to which it may belong. Forexample, image 660 can be tagged with a unique id indicative of itsassociation with the county level 654 and the town level 652. The taggedimage 660 can therefore be preferably retrieved for various searchesassociated with the county level 654 and optionally for the lower townlevel 652. When the image matching module 306 fails to select a matchingimage for a locale from the town level 652, the image 660 can beretrieved from the county level 654 by searching up the geo-hierarch 650if it depicts the weather conditions that matches the current weatherdata for a town in the county represented by the county level image set654.

The locale expansion module 308 alters the unique id associated with thetown to another unique id associated with the county level 654 in thegeo-hierarchy in order to expand the image pool. In an embodiment, thehierarchy 650 can go up to the state level 656 prior to reaching thethreshold. When no matching image can be retrieved even at the statelevel 656, an image from the default image pool or the fallback levelimage set 658 which is the top layer of the geo hierarchy 650 isretrieved for presentation to the user. In an embodiment, imagesdepicting the various weather conditions which do not include anylocation specific landmarks can be tagged with the unique id associatedwith the default level 658. It may be appreciated that the variouslevels are shown herein only by the way of illustration and notlimitation and that other levels can be defined based on regionalvariations in referring to geographic entities across the globe. It maybe further appreciated that the threshold level is set at the statelevel 656 only by the way of illustration and that the threshold levelcan be increased to the country level (not shown) or reduced further toa county level 656 based on the desired granularity of geographicalentities defined within the weather imaging module 100.

FIG. 6c is a flow chart 680 that details a method for expanding a localeas implemented by the location expansion module 308 in accordance withone embodiment. The method begins with the location expansion module 380receiving an input at 682 to expand the locale definition associatedwith the search for images in the image collection 120 in accordancewith the embodiments described herein. The unique id from the geohierarchy 650 that is currently associated with the locale associatedwith the user request 102 is retrieved at 684. At 686 the unique idassociated with the next level in the geo hierarchy is identified andthe currently associated unique id is exchanged with the unique idassociated with the next level in the geo hierarchy 650 at 688 therebyexpanding the image pool available for the search.

FIG. 7a is a schematic diagram of a user interface 700 showing weatherdata with a user submitted image in accordance with embodimentsdescribed herein. It may be appreciated that the details describedherein are only by the way of illustration and not limitation and thatother variations of weather data presentation with user submitted imagesare possible. The user interface 700 shows weather data superimposed ona user-submitted image 712. It may be noted that the user-submittedimage 712 of a flower shown in the user interface 700 is an example ofan image from the default image collection 122 indicative that alocation-specific image could not be retrieved. It may be noted that theimage 712 was updated at 11.38 AM as shown at 718. The user interface700 also identifies the locale 702 “Pine Brook” and local time 724 atwhich the weather data 104 was presented to the user. The informationpresented to the user comprises the temperature 704 including themaximum and minimum temperatures, a textual description 706 “fair” andan image 708 indicative of the current weather conditions at Pine Brook.A list 710 of predicted weather conditions for the next few days is alsosuperimposed on the image 712. The user interface 700 also shows theinformation of the user 714 submitting the image 712 and the source 716of the weather data 104. Widgets 720 for sharing the display 700 withthe social network and 722 to edit the location information are alsoincluded in the user interface 700. Other widgets such as but notlimited to, a widget that facilitates retrieval of additional weatherdata or downloading of the image 712 to a user device can also beincluded on the user interface 700. Selection of one of the widgets 720or 722 can lead the user to other user interfaces that facilitateexecution of the tasks associated therewith. In an embodiment, the userinterface 700 is responsive to further user input. For example tappingon the image 712 can show further details of the image 712 orinformation related to a landmark that may be depicted in the image 712.In an embodiment, if multiple locations are selected by a user formonitoring the weather conditions, the displays associated with eachlocation can be shown on multiple screens and navigation from one screento another is facilitated for example, via a slide gesture.

FIG. 7b is a schematic diagram of another user interface 750 shown whenthe display was refreshed a few minutes after the user interface 700 wasretrieved in accordance with one embodiment. The user interface 750 isassociated with the same locale “Pine Brook”, as the user interface 700and shows similar weather conditions as the user interface 700. However,it may be noted that the user interface 750 was updated at 11.48 AM asshown at 718 and at that time an image specific to Pine Brook of a locallandmark was retrieved and displayed with the weather information. Inparticular, the city of Pine Brook is situated in Morris County and animage of a church bell tower from a nearby city of Morristown wasretrieved and presented at a later time instead of the generic imageshown in the user interface 700. Thus, expansion of the geographic areaassociated with the initial locale of Pine Brook by the locationexpansion module 308 to include nearby towns from Morris County enabledthe weather imaging module 100 to present a location-specific image withthe weather information thereby providing a window to Pine Brook (andsurrounding areas) to interested users.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a user interface 800 that is shown when awidget 722 is selected in accordance with one embodiment. The userinterface 800 shows a list of the locations 810 selected by a user formonitoring the weather conditions. As seen from the user interface 800the weather conditions for various locations across the globe can bemonitored. The user interface 800 allows the user to sync the locationsfrom a social network or other user profiles accessible to the weatherimaging module 100. Further user interface elements 802, 804 are alsoincluded that facilitate respectively adding more locations or deletingexisting locations from the user profile.

As shown in the example of FIG. 9, internal architecture of a computingdevice 900 includes one or more processing units (also referred toherein as CPUs) 912, which interface with at least one computer bus 902.Also interfacing with computer bus 902 are persistent storagemedium/media 906, network interface 914, memory 904, e.g., random accessmemory (RAM), run-time transient memory, read only memory (ROM), etc.,media disk drive interface 908, an interface 920 for a drive that canread and/or write to media including removable media such as floppy,CD-ROM, DVD, etc., media, display interface 910 as interface for amonitor or other display device, keyboard interface 916 as interface fora keyboard, pointing device interface 918 as an interface for a mouse orother pointing device, and miscellaneous other interfaces 922 not shownindividually, such as parallel and serial port interfaces, a universalserial bus (USB) interface, and the like.

Memory 904 interfaces with computer bus 902 so as to provide informationstored in memory 904 to CPU 912 during execution of software programssuch as an operating system, application programs, device drivers, andsoftware modules that comprise program code or logic, and/orcomputer-executable process steps, incorporating functionality describedherein, e.g., one or more of process flows described herein. CPU 912first loads computer-executable process steps or logic from storage,e.g., memory 904, storage medium/media 906, removable media drive,and/or other storage device. CPU 912 can then execute the stored processsteps in order to execute the loaded computer-executable process steps.Stored data, e.g., data stored by a storage device, can be accessed byCPU 912 during the execution of computer-executable process steps.

Persistent storage medium/media 906 is a computer readable storagemedium(s) that can be used to store software and data, e.g., anoperating system and one or more application programs. Persistentstorage medium/media 906 can also be used to store device drivers, suchas one or more of a digital camera driver, monitor driver, printerdriver, scanner driver, or other device drivers, web pages, contentfiles, metadata, playlists and other files. Persistent storagemedium/media 906 can further include program modules and data files usedto implement one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a client deviceimplementation of a computing device in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. A client device 1000 may include a computingdevice capable of sending or receiving signals, such as via a wired or awireless network, and capable of running application software or “apps”.A client device may, for example, include a desktop computer or aportable device, such as a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a displaypager, a radio frequency (RF) device, an infrared (IR) device, aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld computer, a tabletcomputer, a laptop computer, a set top box, a wearable computer, anintegrated device combining various features, such as features of theforgoing devices, or the like.

A client device may vary in terms of capabilities or features. Theclient device can include standard components such as a CPU 1002, powersupply 1028, a memory 1018, ROM 1020, BIOS 1022, network interface(s)1030, audio interface 1032, display 1034, keypad 1036, illuminator 1038,I/O interface 1040 interconnected via circuitry 1026. Claimed subjectmatter is intended to cover a wide range of potential variations. Forexample, the keypad 1036 of a cell phone may include a numeric keypad ora display 1034 of limited functionality, such as a monochrome liquidcrystal display (LCD) for displaying text. In contrast, however, asanother example, a web-enabled client device 1000 may include one ormore physical or virtual keyboards 1036, mass storage, one or moreaccelerometers, one or more gyroscopes, global positioning system (GPS)1024 or other location identifying type capability, Haptic interface1042, or a display with a high degree of functionality, such as atouch-sensitive color 2D or 3D display, for example. The memory 1018 caninclude Random Access Memory 1004 including an area for data storage1008.

A client device 1000 may include or may execute a variety of operatingsystems 1006, including a personal computer operating system, such as aWindows, iOS or Linux, or a mobile operating system, such as iOS,Android, or Windows Mobile, or the like. A client device 1000 mayinclude or may execute a variety of possible applications 1010, such asa client software application 1014 enabling communication with otherdevices, such as communicating one or more messages such as via email,short message service (SMS), or multimedia message service (MMS),including via a network, such as a social network, including, forexample, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, or Google+, to provideonly a few possible examples. A client device 1000 may also include orexecute an application to communicate content, such as, for example,textual content, multimedia content, or the like. A client device 1000may also include or execute an application 1010 to perform a variety ofpossible tasks, such as browsing, searching, playing various forms ofcontent, including locally stored or streamed content, such as, video,or games (such as fantasy sports leagues). The foregoing is provided toillustrate that claimed subject matter is intended to include a widerange of possible features or capabilities.

For the purposes of this disclosure a computer readable medium storescomputer data, which data can include computer program code that isexecutable by a computer, in machine readable form. By way of example,and not limitation, a computer readable medium may comprise computerreadable storage media, for tangible or fixed storage of data, orcommunication media for transient interpretation of code-containingsignals. Computer readable storage media, as used herein, refers tophysical or tangible storage (as opposed to signals) and includeswithout limitation volatile and non-volatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for thetangible storage of information such as computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data. Computer readablestorage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD, orother optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other physical ormaterial medium which can be used to tangibly store the desiredinformation or data or instructions and which can be accessed by acomputer or processor.

For the purposes of this disclosure a system or module is a software,hardware, or firmware (or combinations thereof), process orfunctionality, or component thereof, that performs or facilitates theprocesses, features, and/or functions described herein (with or withouthuman interaction or augmentation). A module can include sub-modules.Software components of a module may be stored on a computer readablemedium. Modules may be integral to one or more servers, or be loaded andexecuted by one or more servers. One or more modules may be grouped intoan engine or an application.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the methods and systems ofthe present disclosure may be implemented in many manners and as suchare not to be limited by the foregoing exemplary embodiments andexamples. In other words, functional elements being performed by singleor multiple components, in various combinations of hardware and softwareor firmware, and individual functions, may be distributed among softwareapplications at either the client or server or both. In this regard, anynumber of the features of the different embodiments described herein maybe combined into single or multiple embodiments, and alternateembodiments having fewer than, or more than, all of the featuresdescribed herein are possible. Functionality may also be, in whole or inpart, distributed among multiple components, in manners now known or tobecome known. Thus, myriad software/hardware/firmware combinations arepossible in achieving the functions, features, interfaces andpreferences described herein. Moreover, the scope of the presentdisclosure covers conventionally known manners for carrying out thedescribed features and functions and interfaces, as well as thosevariations and modifications that may be made to the hardware orsoftware or firmware components described herein as would be understoodby those skilled in the art now and hereafter.

While the system and method have been described in terms of one or moreembodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure need not belimited to the disclosed embodiments. It is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit andscope of the claims, the scope of which should be accorded the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similarstructures. The present disclosure includes any and all embodiments ofthe following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computingdevice over a network, a request for weather information from a userdevice, the request comprising physical location data associated with acurrent location of the user device; automatically identifying, via thecomputing device, weather data associated with the current location ofthe user device in response to said request, said weather datacomprising information indicating weather conditions for the currentlocation based on a time said request was received; automaticallysearching, via the computing device, an online image collection for animage that depicts content associated with said identified weather dataat said current location of the user device, said search comprisingsearching said collection using said weather data and said physicallocation data as a query; identifying, via the computing device based onsaid search, metadata of said image, said metadata comprisinginformation associated with a best available quality version of theimage within said collection; creating, via the computing device, aweather information display based on said identified weather data andsaid metadata of said image, said creation comprising automaticallyretrieving said best available quality version of the image from saidcollection and combining said retrieved image with said weather data,said created weather information display comprising said weather datatransparently overlaid the retrieved image; and automaticallycommunicating, via the computing device over the network, said createdweather information display for display on a display of said user devicein response to said request.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein saidautomatic searching further comprises: searching the online imagecollection for a set of images that depict content associated with saididentified weather data at said current location of the user device,said search comprising searching said collection using said weather dataand said physical location data as a query; and identifying, based onsaid search, a set of metadata associated with said set of images, saidmetadata set comprising information associated with a best availablequality version of each image within said set.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein said weather information display is created based on said set ofmetadata.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: causing saidweather information display to scroll through said set of imagesincluded in said weather information display, said scrolling comprisingsaid weather data being transparently displayed over each scrolledimage.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said collection is based on aplurality of databases on said network.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein said image collection comprises a plurality of user generatedimages that have been uploaded to the network.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the physical location data comprises global positioning data(GPS) data of the user device.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein saidcurrent location of said user device is automatically expanded based ona hierarchy of geography associated with said physical location data. 9.A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded withcomputer-executable instructions, that when executed by a computingdevice, perform a method comprising: receiving, over a network, arequest for weather information from a user device, the requestcomprising physical location data associated with a current location ofthe user device; automatically identifying weather data associated withthe current location of the user device in response to said request,said weather data comprising information indicating weather conditionsfor the current location based on a time said request was received;automatically searching an online image collection for an image thatdepicts content associated with said identified weather data at saidcurrent location of the user device, said search comprising searchingsaid collection using said weather data and said physical location dataas a query; identifying, based on said search, metadata of said image,said metadata comprising information associated with a best availablequality version of the image within said collection; creating a weatherinformation display based on said identified weather data and saidmetadata of said image, said creation comprising automaticallyretrieving said best available quality version of the image from saidcollection and combining said retrieved image with said weather data,said created weather information display comprising said weather datatransparently overlaid the retrieved image; and automaticallycommunicating, over the network, said created weather informationdisplay for display on a display of said user device in response to saidrequest.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 9, wherein said automatic searching further comprises: searchingthe online image collection for a set of images that depict contentassociated with said identified weather data at said current location ofthe user device, said search comprising searching said collection usingsaid weather data and said physical location data as a query; andidentifying, based on said search, a set of metadata associated withsaid set of images, said metadata set comprising information associatedwith a best available quality version of each image within said set. 11.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, whereinsaid weather information display is created based on said set ofmetadata.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 11, further comprising: causing said weather information displayto scroll through said set of images included in said weatherinformation display, said scrolling comprising said weather data beingtransparently displayed over each scrolled image.
 13. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein said collection isbased on a plurality of databases on said network.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein saidimage collection comprises a plurality of user generated images thathave been uploaded to the network.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the physicallocation data comprises global positioning data (GPS) data of the userdevice.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim9, wherein said current location of said user device is automaticallyexpanded based on a hierarchy of geography associated with said physicallocation data.
 17. A computing device, comprising: a processor; anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium for tangibly storingthereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logiccomprising: logic executed by the processor for receiving, over anetwork, a request for weather information from a user device, therequest comprising physical location data associated with a currentlocation of the user device; logic executed by the processor forautomatically identifying weather data associated with the currentlocation of the user device in response to said request, said weatherdata comprising information indicating weather conditions for thecurrent location based on a time said request was received; logicexecuted by the processor for automatically searching an online imagecollection for an image that depicts content associated with saididentified weather data at said current location of the user device,said search comprising searching said collection using said weather dataand said physical location data as a query; logic executed by theprocessor for identifying, based on said search, metadata of said image,said metadata comprising information associated with a best availablequality version of the image within said collection; logic executed bythe processor for creating a weather information display based on saididentified weather data and said metadata of said image, said creationcomprising automatically retrieving said best available quality versionof the image from said collection and combining said retrieved imagewith said weather data, said created weather information displaycomprising said weather data transparently overlaid the retrieved image;and logic executed by the processor for automatically communicating,over the network, said created weather information display for displayon a display of said user device in response to said request.
 18. Thecomputing device of claim 17, further comprising: logic executed by theprocessor for searching the online image collection for a set of imagesthat depict content associated with said identified weather data at saidcurrent location of the user device, said search comprising searchingsaid collection using said weather data and said physical location dataas a query; and logic executed by the processor for identifying, basedon said search, a set of metadata associated with said set of images,said metadata set comprising information associated with a bestavailable quality version of each image within said set, wherein saidweather information display is created based on said set of metadata.19. The computing device of claim 18, further comprising: logic executedby the processor for causing said weather information display to scrollthrough said set of images included in said weather information display,said scrolling comprising said weather data being transparentlydisplayed over each scrolled image.
 20. The computing device of claim17, wherein said current location of said user device is automaticallyexpanded based on a hierarchy of geography associated with said physicallocation data.